A Minnesota healthcare fraud suspect was apprehended by federal law enforcement officers on Thursday after attempting to escape by jumping from a fourth-story balcony during a raid.
The arrest followed a major interagency press conference that detailed extensive corruption charges involving public healthcare programs within the state.
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"After today's interagency press conference announcing 15 public healthcare fraud indictments in Minnesota, the below subject who fled when FBI executed today's raid — Muhammad Omar — has now been arrested," posted Kash Patel, Director of the FBI.
The suspect allegedly mismanaged public funds through a specific housing assistance program and was caught shortly after his escape attempt.
"He is charged with healthcare fraud (18 U. S.
C. § 1349, 18 U.
S. C.
§ 1347) involving a Housing Stabilization Services company — with fraudulent claims for services not provided and diverting the proceeds for personal benefit," Patel stated regarding Omar.
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"Subject was located arrested within 2 hours."
Federal officials confirmed the dramatic escape attempt during a media briefing detailing the multi-agency operation on Thursday.
"Muhammad Abdulqadir Omar, 32, of Roseville, Minnesota, and Ibrahim Bashir Abdi, 25, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, were charged by indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and four counts of health care fraud in connection with a scheme to submit $3.3 million in fraudulent claims to the Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) Program of Minnesota Medicaid, of which approximately $3.2 million was paid," according to the Justice Department.
The formal indictment alleges that the business owners systematically falsified documentation to obtain millions of dollars from the government program.
"As alleged in the indictment, Omar and Abdi co-owned and operated North Home Health Care LLC (NHHC) and Omar individually owned South Home Health Care LLC (SHHC).
Omar and Abdi, through NHHC and SHHC, submitted claims to the HSS Program for services that they did not provide and for more services than were actually provided to Medicaid recipients.
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Omar and Abdi then created records falsifying the services that they claimed to have provided to Medicaid recipients and provided those records to insurers to justify their fraudulent claims," the DOJ asserted.
